Review: The Time of My Life by Cecelia Ahern

Have you ever wondered what your life looks like to others? What if you had to face a personification of your life? Would your life look good? Or would it look rumpled and unkempt? Would it look cared for? Or would it look neglected and unloved? In Cecelia Ahern's newest novel, Lucy Silchester's Life isn't very happy with her and he's about to introduce himself to her, interfere for her own good, make her face the realities of her life, and then hopefully help her change.

Lucy is living in a tiny, tatty bedsit, working in a job she doesn't like to the extent that she pretends to be a smoker so she can take smoke breaks, avoiding her friends, ignoring her family, and still mourning the loss of her five year relationship to perfect Blake, who has gone on to have a travel television show and become famous without her. The end of her relationship with Blake signalled the end of quite a lot for her and the lie that they agreed upon, that she left him rather than the reality that he dumped her, has snowballed out of control and negatively impacted every aspect of Lucy's life. Not that she realizes it. But her life is about to perform a life audit on her, whether she wants an intervention or not.  And she most assuredly doesn't, convinced that she's happy enough in her life as it is.

Lucy is shocked when her Life shows up to meet her. Her Life is a sloppily dressed, dishevelled looking man with scruffy hair, bad breath, clammy hands, and black circles under his bloodshot eyes. Worse than his appearance is the fact that he knows everything about her. After all, he is her Life. This means that all the protective lies that Lucy has told over the years, all her embarrassments and missteps, he knows them all. And he is determined to force her to face the state of him so that she comes to understand just how little consideration she's actually giving her own life. Cosmo (this is the name they decide on together) will shadow her, meet her friends and family, follow her to work, and just generally observe her daily life unless he needs to step in and keep her accountable. He might even throw her a curveball here or there if she's being particularly obstreporous.

This is a creative idea and Ahern mostly pulls it off. Lucy's life is definitely not on the right track and as a character she's only reliable because after spinning a long and rose-colored tale, she will tell the reader outright that she lied. Her idea that lying is okay as long as the outcome is the same as it would be if she was not lying is a little odd but it suits her. She's not the most sympathetic character but she does grow on the reader as the novel progresses. The rest of the characters are only briefly sketched and their involvement in Lucy's life is really only explored tangenially since Lucy is supposed to be learning how to be there for herself and how to tell the truth before she can concentrate on her relationships with others. Despite this, there is a love interest and, of course, the mythically perfect Blake. The pacing of the novel is a tad uneven as the reader struggles a little to get into the story but by the end is being pulled along happily. A fun story for the coming summer, this would be the perfect combination of light entertainment and yet still a bit thought provoking to read while sitting by the pool or on the beach.

For more information about Cecelia Ahern and the book check out her website or find her on Facebook. Follow the rest of the blog tour or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.